2015 is going to be a pretty big year if, like most of us, you use a smartphone or tablet every day. Everything is going to get a whole lot faster, and you’ll be able to use 4G in more places around the country. Here’s what Australia’s top three telcos have to show off in the next 12 months.

1 January 2015

With the calendar rolling over to 2015, the 700Mhz spectrum split up between Optus, TPG and Telstra is fully available for carriers to use. We’ve already seen Optus’ plans roll out overnight, and now Telstra’s released a fuller picture of its 700Mhz “4GX” plans.

It’s the 1st of January — happy new year — and with it, the 700Mhz spectrum that used to be used for analogue TV broadcasts is now open for carriers to utilise. Optus has announced the rollout of more than 270 700Mhz sites across Australia.

7 October 2014

The race for 4G supremacy is on, and it’s running in earnest at the moment between the top two telcos Telstra and Optus. With the news that Telstra will switch on its 4GX network more broadly around Australia at the start of next year, Optus has name-checked 118 regions around the country that will benefit from its expanded 4G rollout in the next three to six months.

3 October 2014

In the next couple of months, you’ll be hearing more and more about a new technology that Telstra is switching on around the nation at the start of 2015. 4GX is just a fancy name for the telco’s new 700MHz mobile network frequency, but that’s not the only thing you need to know about it.

24 September 2014

Telstra has ceased development of its earliest LTE-Advanced network, the first in Australia, to focus on a more mainstream and modern approach. This (entirely rational and forward-looking) move keeps Australia’s biggest telco up to date with technology and lets it support new devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but leaves existing owners of one particular 4G Wi-Fi hotspot out in the cold.

23 September 2014

When it paid $650 million for long-range 700MHz spectrum in 2013, we all knew that Optus would be putting it to good use for fast and expansive mobile network coverage — but we just didn’t know when. Optus’ new coverage map shows its future 4G Plus rollout zones, covering much wider areas around Australia’s capital cities.

We’re on the cusp of even faster 4G networks being rolled out across the country, helping you burn through your measly quotas quicker than ever. Optus is the first of Australia’s big three mobile phone networks to switch on 4G carrier aggregation in Australia, doing so today in most state capitals. But there’s one problem — which phones and 4G hotspots support the brand new tech?